Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Nepal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Tuesday, 23 March 2027
- Saturday, 11 March 2028
- Thursday, 1 March 2029
Where Holi (Terai · Madhesh) falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 23 Mar
- 2028: 11 Mar, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 1 Mar, 11 days earlier
The two days of Holi
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Nepal calendar
The dates, year by year
Nepal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day of colours, the morning after the Holika bonfire. Dry gulal and coloured water are thrown on everyone without distinction of age or rank, which is the point of the day; Braj keeps a fortnight of it, with the lathmar Holi at Barsana and the flower Holi at Vrindavan. The southern reading is Kamadahana: Kama, who shot his arrow at Shiva in meditation, was burnt by the third eye, and the ashes are the fire of the night before.
- Deity
- Krishna, Radha, Kamadeva, Holika
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The play of colour is Krishna's: the dark child asked Yashoda why Radha was so fair, and she told him to go and colour Radha's face whatever colour he liked, and Braj has been doing it for him ever since. Its other meaning is social: for one morning the order of age, caste and rank is set aside, anyone may colour anyone, and an old quarrel is ended with an embrace and a smear of gulal, which is why the day is kept as much for the neighbourhood as for the gods. The name Dhulandi comes from dhuli, dust, because the day once began with the ash of the Holika fire put on the forehead, and in many villages it still does. In the purnimanta reckoning of the north this morning is the first day of Chaitra, the first month of spring. The Terai and the Madhesh keep Holi the day after the hills, as the plains of India do, with the Maithili and Bhojpuri phagua songs carried from house to house to the dholak.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Holi (Terai · Madhesh): how it is kept
Keep ready
- dry gulal and abir, from flowers or herbs where possible
- pichkaris and buckets
- coconut or mustard oil
- old clothes, and clean white or new ones for afterwards
- gujiya and other sweets
- milk, almonds, fennel and spices for the thandai
- a dholak
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The north makes gujiya of khoya and dry fruit, thandai of milk, almonds, fennel, pepper and rose, malpua, dahi vada, kanji vada, papri and namak pare, and some take bhang in the thandai or as pakoras. Maharashtra eats puran poli with katachi amti; Bengal offers malpoa and sweets to Krishna on the swing at Dol; Nepal and the Terai eat the same gujiya and malpua as the plains.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 23 March 2027 at Chennai
The day after the hills keep it, when the Purnima holds the sunrise; the Terai plays the colours then, as the plains of India do.
The main rite. The morning after Holika Dahan: the colours are played from after the morning worship until about midday, then everyone bathes, and the visiting is in the afternoon and evening. The Telugu and Kannada calendars put the day on the Phalguna Pournami itself, and Maharashtra plays its colours at Rang Panchami instead.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:11 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 06:11, sunset 18:20, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Krishna Prathamai from previous day 16:14 until 14:29 | then Krishna Dwitiyai until next day 13:15 |
| Nakshatra | Hasta until 19:50 | then Chitra until next day 19:26 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:18 to 16:49 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:14 to 10:45 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:16 to 13:47 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:51 to 12:40 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 19:13 | moonset next day 07:12 |
For Tuesday, 23 March 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. Gujiya, thandai, malpua and dahi vada are the food, and in the north bhang is taken by some on the day.
What is avoided
Do not colour anyone who does not want it, the sick or animals, and use no eggs, mud, grease, silver paint or chemical colours that burn the eyes and skin. Bhang is never given to children or to anyone who does not know what they are drinking, and no one drives after taking it.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The Hindi belt, Braj, Bengal (as Dol Jatra with the swing), Odisha (Dola Purnima) and Manipur (Yaosang) keep it hardest; the Deccan keeps it as Kamadahana or Kama Dahanam with the fire and little colour, and Tamil Nadu and Kerala barely keep it at all. Maharashtra puts the day on the Phalgun Pournima itself, the night of the bonfire, and waits until Rang Panchami five days later to play the colours; Assam plays the phaku the morning after the Doul. The Terai and the Madhesh play the day after the hills, which is why the Nepali calendar prints two Holi dates and two public holidays.
In other regions
- Telugu
- Telangana and Hyderabad play the colours on the morning after the Kamuni fire, and Andhra keeps the day more quietly as Kamadahanam.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps it most in the north of the state, where the colours follow the Kamana Habba fire; the south of the state keeps little of it.
- North India
- Braj keeps the longest Holi: the lathmar Holi at Barsana and Nandgaon, where the women drive off the men of the other village with sticks, the Holi of flowers at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, and the huranga at Dauji the day after; Kumaon sings the Baithaki Holi of classical songs for weeks, Bihar sings the phaguwa, and the whole Hindi belt plays in the streets.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Holi Pournima as the night of the bonfire and plays the colours five days later on Rang Panchami.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps the day as Dol Jatra, swinging Radha and Krishna and playing abir, and Santiniketan keeps it as Basanta Utsav.
- Punjab
- The Punjab plays Holi in the towns, and the day after, at Anandpur Sahib, the Nihangs keep Hola Mohalla, the martial gathering Guru Gobind Singh set in its place.
- Assam
- Assam keeps the Doul at Barpeta and in the satras, and plays the phaku on its last day.
- Nepal (the dates above)
- Janakpur, Birgunj and the towns of the Madhesh play the colours on the day after the hills, sing the jogira and the phagua, and keep a public holiday of their own for it.
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh call the days Fagua, with the fag sung in Chhattisgarhi through the fortnight before the fire and the colours played the morning after it. The Santhal spring festival, Baha, falls near the same full moon and is a different festival of a different religion, not a Santhal Holi.
- Himachal · Uttarakhand
- Kumaon keeps the longest Holi in the hills and the only sung one: the Baithki Holi of classical ragas is held in sitting assemblies from the Pausha Shukla Ekadashi onward, the Khadi Holi is sung standing and in procession through the villages of Almora and Pithoragarh, and the Mahila Holi is the women’s own. The colours of the last morning are the end of a season rather than the whole of the festival.
The dates above are the Nepal reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
होलीक हार्दिक शुभकामनाHolik hardik shubhakamna
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Banke Bihari Temple, Vrindavan 1,634 kmMathura, Uttar Pradesh
The entry for this day names Vrindavan. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Braj keeps a fortnight of it, with the lathmar Holi at Barsana and the flower Holi at Vrindavan.
- Shriji Temple (Radha Rani), Barsana 1,648 kmMathura, Uttar Pradesh
The entry for this day names Barsana. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Braj keeps a fortnight of it, with the lathmar Holi at Barsana and the flower Holi at Vrindavan.
Temples of Krishna near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.